


My loved ones are always with me, Felicity

by MaryTagus



Series: Not all is bright colors and rainbows [14]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 02:53:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6266626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaryTagus/pseuds/MaryTagus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity is back at the Lair and her and Oliver finally addresses a core issue between them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My loved ones are always with me, Felicity

The Lair is quiet, only the low humming of the server welcomes me. My thoughts travel back to when it was just the three of us on Verdant’s basement. All my time off was spent there, working on the system, searching for threats. My life was then pretty much limited to Queen Consolidated and help fighting crime, home was a small empty apartment where I crashed to bed and dosed off almost immediately, every night. I hardly remember the color of the walls.

This is new, sparkling, still its Oliver’s work everywhere I turn even the computers on my desk. I push the button pulling the system back online and the humming builds up to a smooth wave that tells me everything is working fine. I’ve grown attentive to its downs and lows as a difference, even a slight one, can mean a problem.

The elevator moves up. Someone is coming. I have time to sit myself in front of the computer screen. As the screen comes to light the elevator doors open. A step, the door closing back up and silence. It’s Oliver I can feel him from where I sit. I can feel his presence as much as I can fell his hesitation.

“Hi.”

“Hi Oliver. Still starting the system. Got here a bit later than usual.”

“I’ll go change.”

This is awkward but can’t be avoided. We both know that. To my surprise, though, Oliver doesn’t linger; he comes back, Green Arrow attired, in the usual time frame.

He sits right next to me.

“This holds memories.”

I have to agree but I can’t talk, our closeness overwhelms me, so I just nod.

“Can you check the cameras for Darhk?”

I start the search.

“And Ruvé? Should I start a search for her too?”

“No need. I know exactly where she is.”

He presses a button on the control and a TV comes to light, a smug Ruvé fills the screen; she’s just campaigning but she acts like she already won. She’s every right to think like that being she’s the only one running after Darhk blackmailed Oliver to drop out. Oliver’s demeanor on my side isn’t fooling me.

“Oliver, can’t you get back to the race?”

A sad smile crosses his lips.

“What would I be showing the voters, Felicity?”

I can see want his thinking. And I can’t argue with it. He would look like he doesn’t know what he wants, one day his out the next day his in, who can trust a man like that?

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m still fighting, Felicity. I may lose but I won’t stop fighting for this city. But I will need…”

He doesn’t finish, he doesn’t have to.

“I’m still in this fight with you, Oliver. I’m not stopping either.”

“Thank you.”

But something is worrying me since yesterday.

“Oliver. Don’t go out on your own. Please.”

He does that without even notice, it’s the core issue between us but it’s also the core issue with the team; why he almost died yesterday. I feel him tense up at my side.

“I’ll try.”

“No, Oliver. No try. Do. Life would be so much better if you just didn’t go off alone so much.”

“I do what I can to protect the ones I love, Felicity.”

“Maybe the ones you love love you back and the only thing they want is have you in their life and be in your life themselves.”

“The ones I love are in my life. Always, Felicity.”

“No Oliver, they’re in your thoughts. It’s not the same thing.”

We didn’t notice the elevator moving but it must have as Thea’s muffled voice reaches us.

“We are late Dig.”

“I’m sure if anything important had happen Felicity would have called.”

Diggle’s last words aren’t muffled anymore as the elevator door opens and they are stepping into the Lair, effectively snapping me and Oliver from our conversation.

“No, nothing important happen.”

I glimpse at Oliver confirming the lie I just conveyed to Diggle. Me and Oliver talked lifting the awkward silence cloud that enveloped us for weeks; I can’t help but feel we are stepping on to a new phase of our relationship.

“We’ll go change.”

Little escaped Diggle so the small ring “We’ll leave you alone” that tinged his words didn’t surprise me.

“They are in my thoughts because they are forever present; in my life, in my decisions, even in my mistakes. I care for them enough to shelter them from all that is pain. I shelter them from the bad things that aren’t in their power to make better.”

“Maybe they rather help you carry the weight, of your pain, your concerns, even your mistakes.”

“Then they fail to understand that that would not lift my burden but, instead, make it greater, unbearable even at times.”

My fingers stop over the keyboard. Could he feel that way? I could see him feeling that way; the same way he didn’t want me close to him a year ago. But that would mean we hadn’t evolved and we had. We were so much better, I knew so much more, I shared so much more; we had been through so much since then.

“That’s you a year ago, Oliver. I thought you were different now.”

“Obviously not enough.”

 


End file.
